There’s no denying that the digital world has changed the outside face of marketing. While many of the inner-face principles of marketing have (and always will) remain the same in terms of audience segmentation, targeting and positioning, the way brands now engage with their customers has changed faster in the past 10 years than throughout the rest of history put together.

Customer journeys help to increase positive results in all customer related KPIs, but in large enterprises and public organisations, the rule is if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. How do we measure commitment to a brand and products – and how do we score KPIs that need to be improved upon?

A recent report by McKinsey indicates that customer journeys are 30% more...

Getting a customer to your site once is a small feat, but if you want to survive in today’s crowded world of e-commerce, return visits should be your top priority.

A global study of 250m e-commerce websites and €500m (£444m) in online revenue by Wolfgang Digital demonstrates the importance of this in a market where conversion rates stand at a razor-thin average of just 1.8%.

It’s pretty clear that Amazon is on a monumental roll. The company’s growth is staggering, showing a 39% year over year increase in net sales, a 12x jump in earnings per share (EPS), and over 100m Prime subscribers globally in Q2 2018. There simply isn’t another e-commerce company with the same market presence and influence over the customer journey.

A hub for lower-funnel customer demand

Think of TomTom and you’ll probably think navigation systems but, according to Nicoleta Anton, that sole association is hampering its lesser known work with autonomous vehicles and smart transportation. The company’s global content marketing specialist, Anton has turned to content marketing - more specifically, thought leadership - in order to promote TomTom’s growing authority with emerging technology.

Defined as “a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience and...

Google has made no secret of efforts to bridge the world of online marketing and highstreet sales. It has the tech and dominance in droves, and bricks-and-mortar sales still account for over 80% of commerce - you can’t knock the logic.

In recent tweaks to its Shopping ads, the search giant even said it was making it possible for advertisers to...

Creating personalised shopping experiences has long been a priority for retailers.

‘Personalisation’ started out as the in-store sales assistant who could instantly infer basic information about their customers – gender, age, etc – as well as learn about their preferences and offer them advice throughout the browsing and buying journey.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has made a $1.43bn (£1.09bn) bid for a 6.62% share of Focus Media, a Shanghai-based specialist in digital out-of-home (OOH) advertising.

Focus Media’s digital advertising screens can be seen on the street, subways and in elevators across 300 Chinese cities, reaching 200 million “middle class” consumers, according to Alibaba’s own news outlet Alizila.

The investment is part of the company’s wider ‘New Retail’ strategy, which looks to...

With an increasingly uncertain Brexit emerging, UK SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) exporters with a “progressive” and data-driven mindset are most confident about future business success.

A study by marketing agency Croud on 100 leaders of exporting SMEs, including companies such as UNiDAYS, Monty Bojangles and Kit for Kids, looked to shed light on the biggest challenges and opportunities smaller companies expect to face in the run-up to, and after, Brexit.

Google has announced a string of new updates to its Google Shopping platform, aimed at attracting online customers to retailer’s offline ‘brick and mortar’ stalls.

Announced at Search Marketing Expo Advanced (SMX Advanced) yesterday (June 12), the search giant claims despite the massive growth of e-commerce driven by the likes of Amazon, when customers want an item right away, 80% will head to the high...

While there is no doubt that improving customer service quite rightly lies at the top of the page of every business mandate, stopping the problem in the first place – prevention rather than cure – surely must have a place on the list; and investment in that option must be considered as a nearer term strategy?

Understanding the changing landscape of our customers and being able to adapt to their needs requires a different approach to more traditional sales interactions – and means creating...

Encouraging customers to be loyal to a brand is becoming increasingly difficult for marketers, as online and in-store offerings diversify and expand to meet consumer needs. The retail industry is also evolving, which was recently demonstrated by Andrew Griffiths, retail minister, who announced a new collaborative Retail Sector Council. Tasked with bringing the government and industry together, the council’s...

With rapid advances in digital marketing, data and technology, the journey from awareness to sale can now be very short thanks to eCommerce solutions. You can learn about a product, consider a brand and buy all in one go from a shoppable Instagram post. eCommerce is driving the majority of retail growth and presents a significant opportunity for brands. However, as customer behaviour changes, brands need to ensure they don’t get left behind with legacy sales and marketing models.

mCommerce - the digital trend that retailers cannot afford to ignore with over 25% of the world’s population (1.6 billion) using their mobile devices to make purchases. It’s certainly not replacing ecommerce, but a larger proportion of online sales are now coming from mobile devices with recent trends show that online shopping via a desktop and laptop has decreased by 15% in 2018, compared to smartphone transactions, which have doubled.

Despite the belief voice-controlled devices are only used to ‘ask Alexa’ what the weather will be like or to play a song, two in ten (20%) of device owners in the UK are already using them to connect with retailers.

Voice AI is undoubtedly changing the way we shop and it will continue to do so, with voice-controlled device shopping expected to triple this year. However, before voice...

With ever-growing opportunities to promote businesses via Google, it can be difficult for digital marketers to know where to focus their efforts. Whilst a number of search specialists are – quite rightly – deploying clever tactics to boost organic listings, businesses should also remember the benefits that paid search can bring – speed, insight and ROI. However, if budgets are limited, what’s the best way to invest time and money with AdWords?